OS@M@
New Member
Conchaga
Let's fuck some shit up
OS@M@
New Member
You can't have an economy based upon sweet corn and maple syrup.
Loktar
Pinata Whacker
I will fight the corn and maple syrup!
OS@M@
New Member
Fight?
American expansion into the Northwest Territory (the modern states of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin) was being obstructed by indigenous leaders like Tecumseh, who were supplied and encouraged by the British. Americans on the frontier demanded that interference be stopped. Before 1940, some historians held that United States expansionism into Canada was also a reason for the war.
However, one subsequent historian wrote, "Almost all accounts of the 1811–1812 period have stressed the influence of a youthful band, denominated War Hawks, on Madison's policy. According to the standard picture, these men were a rather wild and exuberant group enraged by Britain's maritime practices, certain that the British were encouraging the Indians and convinced that Canada would be an easy conquest and a choice addition to the national domain.
Like all stereotypes, there is some truth in this tableau; however, inaccuracies predominate. First, Perkins has shown that those favoring war were older than those opposed. Second, the lure of the Canadas has been played down by most recent investigators."
Some Canadian historians propounded the notion in the early 20th century, and it survives in public opinion in Ontario. This view was also shared by a member of the British Parliament at the time.
Madison and his advisers believed that conquest of Canada would be easy and that economic coercion would force the British to come to terms by cutting off the food supply for their West Indies colonies. Furthermore, possession of Canada would be a valuable bargaining chip. Frontiersmen demanded the seizure of Canada not because they wanted the land, but because the British were thought to be arming the Indians and thereby blocking settlement of the West.
As Horsman concluded, "The idea of conquering Canada had been present since at least 1807 as a means of forcing England to change her policy at sea. The conquest of Canada was primarily a means of waging war, not a reason for starting it." Hickey flatly stated, "The desire to annex Canada did not bring on the war, and the purpose of the Canadian expedition was to serve negotiation, not to annex Canada."
Burt, a leading Canadian scholar, agreed completely, noting that Foster—the British minister to Washington—also rejected the argument that annexation of Canada was a war goal Nonetheless,many people in the south of the U.S thought that it was America's "destiny" to "expell the tyrannical British from the great American" continent".
The majority of the inhabitants of Upper Canada (Ontario) were either exiles from the United States (United Empire Loyalists) or postwar immigrants. The Loyalists were hostile to union with the U.S., while the other settlers seem to have been uninterested. The Canadian colonies were thinly populated and only lightly defended by the British Army. Americans then believed that many in Upper Canada would rise up and greet a United States invading army as liberators, which did not happen.
One reason American forces retreated after one successful battle inside Canada was that they could not obtain supplies from the locals. But the possibility of local assistance suggested an easy conquest, as former President Thomas Jefferson seemed to believe in 1812: "The acquisition of Canada this year, as far as the neighborhood of Quebec, will be a mere matter of marching, and will give us the experience for the attack on Halifax, the next and final expulsion of England from the American continent."
The declaration of war was passed by the smallest margin recorded on a war vote in the United States Congress. On May 11, Prime Minister Spencer Perceval was shot and killed by an assassin, resulting in a change of the British government, putting Lord Liverpool in power. Liverpool wanted a more practical relationship with the United States. He issued a repeal of the Orders in Council, but the U.S. was unaware of this, as it took three weeks for the news to cross the Atlantic